laptop-init-script

laptop-init-script is small rc.d script located in (/etc/rc.d/laptop-init) i am using to enable/disable laptop optimalizations
you need to install cpufrequtils, pm-utils and laptop-mode-tools to use it.
This script can be instaled from aur (aur/laptop-init-script) or you can find it here:

FBDev (SiSFB FrameBuffer)

/boot/grub/menu.lst

sisfb

If you want to specify your own resolution using custom video driver, then you have to replace vga option with video option. For example if you want to user resolution 1280x800 with 32-bit color depth at 76Hz (which is recommended for Acer Aspire 3000) then you can use this option:

video=sisfb:mode:1280x800x32,rate:76

You can also play with memory consumption like this, but its not needed and it can cause some problems, if you don't know what are you doing:

video=sisfb:mode:1280x800x24,mem:12288,rate:76

vga

Basically you can append this option to the kernel line in the menu.lst. This should work on any VGA compliant graphical adapter if it will have enough resources. But it will look ugly on widescreens, LCDs and similar, if they don't match the exact VGA resolution and it is better to use video=... option.

vga=791

If you don't like 791 mode, then you can use this:

vga=ask

And you will be informed about all modes compatible with your system configuration after reboot.

Note that i am using vga=791 option for fallback kernel because i wan't it to be more failproof (so it will run in case of corrupted sisfb driver or without SiS graphical adapter). But you can still remove this option using GRUB command line before booting in case of some problems.

/etc/rc.local

If you are using kernel option video=sisfb:... instead of vga=... then you should add following line to /etc/rc.local, to get better colours in terminal (for example to have nicer images in links -g)...

fbset -a -depth 32

32 bit mode should be set from video=... option in menu.lst, but it shouldn't work every time on every system. So it's better to check it from rc.local. Note this will cause one more "screen blink" during the boot and it will do nothing if sisfb (or any other video module) is not found or used.